A Library and a Radio Show: The Story of a Successful Partnership at 10 Years and Counting
Lee M. Richardson Barbara Rochen Renner
Terri Ottosen Adam O. Goldstein
Abstract
Your Health® Radio is a weekly one-hour radio show about consumer health produced by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Family Medicine. It provides
practical, health-related news and information to listeners in an easy to understand style. Hosted by a family medicine physician faculty member and co-hosted by other health professionals, it airs on a local radio station. Since 2009, Health Sciences librarians have collaborated on the show, bringing their expertise in information discovery and organization, consumer health, and health literacy to this consumer health endeavor. In the process, the librarians and libraries have also benefitted.
Keywords: radio talk shows, radio programs, academic librarians, academic libraries, medical libraries, consumer health information, interdisciplinary communication,
interprofessional relations, academic libraries relations with faculty and curriculum, academic librarians professional relationships, library outreach programs, social media in medicine, internet, blogs
Lee M. Richardson1 Barbara Rochen Renner2
Terri Ottosen3 Adam O. Goldstein4
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1Lee M. Richardson, MLIS, Information Discovery and Metadata Librarian, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 335 South Columbia Street, Campus Box 7585, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585, USA. Email: [email protected]
2Barbara Rochen Renner, PhD, Library Services Evaluation Specialist and Liaison, Allied
Health Sciences, Health Sciences Library, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Allied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 335 South Columbia Street, Campus Box 7585, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585, USA. Email: [email protected]
3Terri Ottosen, MLIS, AHIP, Community Engagement and Health Literacy Librarian, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 335 South Columbia Street, Campus Box 7585, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585, USA. Email: [email protected]
A Library and a Radio Show: The Story of a Successful Partnership at 10 Years and Counting The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Health Sciences Library (HSL) serves is the primary library for the UNC schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health. It also serves UNC Medical Center and AHEC, the North Carolina Health Education Centers statewide program for health professions education. This paper discusses the HSL’s services to and collaboration with Your Health® Radio (YHR), a weekly one-hour broadcast radio talk show sharing health information in a friendly, easy to understand format. The show is pre-recorded and aired, then the recording is posted on the YHR blog. HSL librarians contribute to and manage the blog, organizing and adding information about topics from the show. A previous article describes the genesis and early decision-making process of this collaboration (Crowell et al., 2013).
Literature Review
discovered how to use the radio to benefit their patrons and promote library services and programs.
Libraries also have a long history of providing health information to the public. In the early 20th century, public libraries believed they had a social mission to improve public health and sought ways to offer health information to their communities. However, public and academic libraries disagreed regarding the “job” of libraries to provide health information. Academic libraries believed they should be the sole providers of such information and just to practitioners. However, it soon became clear that public libraries played an important role in providing
information to communities on a variety of topics, including health. Eventually, public and academic libraries partnered to provide high quality health information to anyone who needed it. At first, physicians were resistant to librarians playing a role in providing or communicating health information to their patients. Most physicians preferred to give this information to their patients and did not want their patients using library resources for their health needs (Chambers, 1955; Rubenstein, 2012).
for themselves or others. The same report stated that 59 percent of adults in the United States had searched online for health information in the previous year (Pew Research Center, 2013). Only a few projects similar to the YHR collaboration are reported in the literature. A similar consumer health project from the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine Library was the subject of a poster presentation at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in 2006. The USC librarians there appeared monthly on a local radio show to present upcoming national health observances (e.g. American Diabetes Month) listed on
healthfinder.gov, describe websites with relevant health information, discuss characteristics of a valid consumer health site, and promote library projects (McConnaughy, Riley, Kane, &
LoCiecero, 2006). In 2006, Wendy Wax, Nursing Librarian at the Helene Fuld College of Nursing Library in New York City, was invited by the physician-host of a local radio show to share how to evaluate health information (Wax, 2006). In these examples, librarians were themselves featured on the shows, or participated in one-time presentations.
Your Health® Radio Show
The show includes three segments: 1) Research that Matters—recent health and medical research presented in a consumer-friendly fashion; 2) Conversations—an interview with a featured guest whose career or endeavors deal with health issues, medical practice, social issues, the U.S. health care system or similar topics; and 3) House Calls—responses to health-related questions previously emailed or submitted through social media by listeners or blog readers. Each show’s recording, along with other information about the show, is included on the YHR blog, which was created with WordPress, open source website and blogging software. Your Health® Radio utilizes Twitter and Facebook to promote the radio show and blog. These social media accounts are linked to the YHR blog and are used to announce upcoming shows and share information on health topics.
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Background
The HSL/YHR collaboration presented a unique opportunity for librarians to participate in and lend expertise to a different kind of consumer health and outreach endeavor. It started in 2009 with librarians helping YHR to create a companion blog for the radio show. Librarians created a prototype blog, provided input on organizing and indexing content, and gave guidance on copyright and usage for images. For several years, the main responsibility of HSL librarians was to assign tags to each show’s blog post and manage the controlled vocabularies that aid users in finding content.
team member had a smaller time commitment and students gained valuable experience in consumer health. However, this team approach also introduced a time lag in completing blog posts and some inconsistency in practices such as using a variety of fonts and different visual formats. These inconsistencies may have had a negative impact, as there is evidence that users consider layout and appearance when evaluating health information on the Internet (Toms & Latter, 2007, p.232). Inconsistencies also occurred in selecting from among similar authoritative health information sources about the same topic.
Librarians implemented new policies to use MedlinePlus as the preferred source for consumer health links in most situations as recommended in The Medical Library Association Guide to Providing Consumer and Patient Health Information (Rios & O’Hagan, 2014, p.63).
MedlinePlus is an online curated consumer health information service produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. When MedlinePlus does not cover a topic, MedlinePlus Quality Guidelines (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018) and the Medical Library Association’s For Health Consumers and Patients: Finding Good Health Information (Medical Library
Association, 2018) are used to evaluate and select website links. With one librarian recently taking over much of the responsibility of selecting links and coordinating the work with just one other librarian, consistency is easier to maintain and blog posts are completed the same week the show airs. Librarians also considered how the number of links in a blog post might affect blog readers. Readers may find it difficult to choose from among multiple websites with similar information, and the redundancy may cause fatigue (Rios & O’Hagan, 2014, p.63). Therefore, links are limited to one or two per topic with a typical show’s blog post containing an average of 17.7 links.
Three librarians currently participate on this project, spending an average of five hours each week: (1) the Liaison Librarian to the Department of Allied Health Sciences; (2) the Information Discovery and Metadata Librarian; and (3) the Community Engagement and Health Literacy Librarian. The allied health liaison leads the project and is the primary contact with the YHR host and producer. She also provides project updates to HSL leadership. Through her
experience with managing projects and leading people with diverse backgrounds in education, libraries, and health related research, she has gained skills applicable to this project. She also has a clinical degree in an allied health discipline, which provides a perspective other teams
members lack. The metadata librarian indexes content on the blog and adds links to additional information for each topic discussed on the show. She also manages the blog, employs search engine optimization practices, and posts content to YHR Twitter. Her training and experience in the following areas are utilized: information organization, controlled vocabularies, WordPress, search engine optimization, and Twitter. The health literacy librarian, who recently joined the team, has years of experience and training in health literacy. These help her evaluate and choose resources written in plain language that users are most likely to understand.
Health Sciences Library Team Workflow
Two librarians listen to the show each week in order to select consumer health links for the blog. The health literacy librarian listens to the first segment of the show, Research that Matters, and selects a website for each study that summarizes the research in easy-to-understand
categories and tags in WordPress, for all topics included in the show. She adds all of this information to the blog post for the show.
It is unusual for librarians to participate on an ongoing (ten years and counting) project with external partners in which tasks have to be carried out by a weekly deadline. Beyond the regular weekly workflow is periodic work related to problem solving, communication, and
brainstorming new ideas. For example, the HSL collaboration team leader communicates with YHR and HSL team members, provides updates, pitches new ideas, troubleshoots WordPress problems, and oversees work of the HSL team. The metadata librarian addresses issues with WordPress and periodically conducts cleanup projects of the metadata and some blog post content.
Expanding Librarian Roles and Contributions
As this collaboration evolved and the information provided on the Internet became more complex, the roles and responsibilities of librarians expanded. Librarian roles have evolved from adding value to the YHR blog through indexing and selecting links to health information, to taking on more responsibility with the recent addition of librarian-initiated content. Knowing that more frequent blog posts could help grow the YHR audience and blog readership, thus broadening the show’s impact, the HSL team brainstormed possibilities and presented them to the show’s host and producer, who readily agreed to the librarians moving forward with their ideas for adding content.
Another way librarians are working to increase the show’s impact is through increasing use of Your Health® Radio’s associated social media sites. Using Twitter best practices, the
metadata librarian recently began contributing content to the YHR Twitter account to promote the radio show and share information on health topics (Adams, 2018, July 24). This librarian tweets at least once a day based on topics trending on Twitter or on topics drawn from recent YHR shows. This provides another opportunity to use librarian expertise to select high quality consumer health links. Currently, the YHR producer and librarian regularly tweet, which may not be sustainable long-term. HSL librarians and the YHR host and producer are exploring ways to involve others. Finally, recognizing the valuable scholarship and need for long-term access and safekeeping of the YHR recordings, librarians are in the process of depositing the audio files into the UNC institutional repository. This also responded to a concern of the YHR executive producer and host about the amount and type of long-term storage space available for audio files.
Blog and Radio: the Numbers
WordPress provides statistics for the YHR blog that demonstrate the extensive outreach value of the project. The following statistics reflect blog activity as of November 14, 2018.
There have been 611 blog posts since July 2010, when the blog went live.
Librarians have provided over 5,000 links since April 2011, and there are currently an average of 17.7 links for each radio show blog post.
The blog has been viewed in 81 countries over the past year and in 154 countries since February 25, 2012, when WordPress began providing this information.
The blog has been viewed over 82,000 times since January 2011.
radio station cannot provide the number of listeners for an individual show, it reports approximately 35,000 on air listeners per week for the radio station as a whole.
Benefits
The university, the library, and the three librarians who collaborate with YHR benefit from this collaborative outreach effort in a number of ways, as do members of the public who listen to the show or interact with the blog.
The collaboration helps advance library and university goals. The 2008-2013 HSL strategic plan, in place when the YHR project was initiated, had several goals directly related to the project, including helping to improve the availability and use of health information by the public. The current University Libraries strategic plan, which applies to HSL, can also be linked to the YHR project. Theme 3 of that plan calls for “Service to and Beyond the UNC Community” (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries, 2013, p. 10). The show supports similar goals (e.g. interdisciplinarity, public service and engagement, global presence) from the university’s strategic plans in place from the time the show began to the present
(University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, n.d.).
Library, 2018a). There are also links to the HSL website from several parts of the blog. Blog statistics show that visitors click on these links. Mentions of HSL on the show and HSL links from the blog raise awareness of the role of libraries in providing authoritative health
information.
Awareness of the collaboration was also raised when the librarian who initiated the collaboration received the university’s 2013 Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award, which recognizes outstanding engagement and service to the state of North Carolina that is
“characterized by working in partnership with community members; inspiring and involving others and/or helping others to serve; responding to a practice problem, issue, or concern of the state; and working to assure the impact in the community is lasting” (Carolina Center for Public Service, n.d.). Numerous presentations at professional conferences, along with several
publications, have also brought recognition to HSL for its work on this collaboration (Your Health® Radio , n.d.b).
Some of the areas in which librarians have learned new skills or strengthened existing skills include evaluating consumer health information, using WordPress software, blogging, employing search engine optimization strategies, evaluating and utilizing controlled vocabularies, applying scholarly communications knowledge (e.g. copyright), and using social media. HSL librarians have also learned more about consumer and physician information needs. These needs directly related to the HSL mission to connect people with information to improve areas of health care and health related research (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library, 2018b).
However, the quality and organization of that information is inconsistent and can be frustrating for people seeking answers to their health questions. In addition, the reading grade level of consumer health materials varies widely. It is estimated that most health care materials are written at a 10th grade reading level, while much of the public reads at an 8th grade level, with 20 percent of the population reading at or below a 5th grade level (Safer & Keenan, 2005).
Although health information is widely available on the Internet, and many seek answers to their health questions there, listeners of the show hear directly from health care providers. The hosts provide information on how to interpret research and how it may or may not impact an individual with the condition or disease being discussed. For example, the results of a research study on the Web may not reveal that perhaps the number of people enrolled was small. The hosts at YHR can explain that more research may be needed to make generalizations about the evidence. The general public may not know what makes a strong study and whether that
Beyond the local radio show broadcast and the blog, YHR reaches members of the public in a number of other ways. Over the years, the show has been broadcast by syndication to other radio stations, and other university libraries have asked to link to the blog in order to provide current online health information to their local consumers. NC LIVE, which provides digital content to all citizens of North Carolina via libraries state wide, features YHR for current health-related content on its Health and Wellness Information Center webpage (NC LIVE, 2018). Overall, the benefits to the public are potentially tremendous, increasing awareness of new research, treatments, and health information resources that can improve health and quality of life generally.
Moving Forward
For the foreseeable future, HSL librarians will continue current activities and explore new ways to expand our contributions. The current WordPress theme used by the blog, which controls the overall graphic design of the site and determines which features can be
implemented, was selected in 2009. Plans are underway for communications experts from the university who are not now connected with this project to redesign the blog and logo. It is possible the blog will migrate to a different WordPress platform available through UNC. A new platform might allow access to new blog management features that could, for example, enable better search and navigation or aid in collection of more nuanced information about blog use and user behavior. The HSL team is also interested in exploring broader UNC community interest, perhaps for contributions such as reviews of mass market health related books and expert guest blog posts.
An academic health sciences library partnering with a radio show is unusual. It is also not typical for librarians to hear the public’s health concerns firsthand and to play a role in the response from health practitioners. Through this collaboration, librarians contribute in areas such as health literacy, scholarly communications, and information organization and discovery. This collaboration demonstrates that the skills librarians have learned and honed through
traditional library training and experience can be applied beyond the library environment in new ways. It also demonstrates that library relationships with physicians and other health
practitioners have evolved to the point that many health practitioners now view librarians as partners in providing the public with authoritative health information.
The HSL’s engagement with YHR has produced many benefits. Listeners and blog readers benefit by hearing from health professionals about new research, gaining new insights from guest experts about a wide variety of health issues, and hearing answers given to questions posed to the hosts. Topics can be further explored on the blog through engagement with librarian vetted health information.
The library has also benefited. This outreach effort supports university and library goals, important to consider both in taking on new endeavors and throughout the life of a long-term project. Librarians and libraries benefit from this participation, gaining new skills, applying skills in new contexts, and raising visibility by working in ways that are not typical for librarians. Through their weekly, ongoing participation, librarians engage, along with health care
Librarians will continue contributions to this project while considering new ways to add value to the Your Health® Radio show and blog. While it may not be possible for another library to engage in a project just like this, the authors believe elements of this partnership and project can be applied by any library. The authors hope the YHR collaboration will inspire additional non-traditional partnerships and services.
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